Posts Tagged ‘LSI London Central’

It is with sadness that LSI says goodbye to Mariló Sanchez from our Marketing team. Mariló, who hails from sunny Andalucía, first started working for LSI back in September 2008 in the reception at LSI London Central. London Central is perhaps the busiest of all the LSI schools so it was a very hard training ground indeed but one that Mariló passed with flying colours and was invited to join the marketing team in 2011. Initially she worked and travelled in Europe and Russia where her amazing linguistic skills (she speaks French, Spanish, Italian and English fluently) were regularly called upon. More recently Mariló has also worked for LSI in Brazil.

“I have loved my time at LSI. I have met so many great people from all around the world, both clients and colleagues, and have had the chance to travel to some amazing places. I enjoyed visiting all the LSI schools, with the exception of Auckland, and meeting so many colleagues who have now become firm friends and who I will definitely keep in touch with.”

Marilo (centre in red) with colleagues at LSI London Central

Mariló now takes on a new challenge with Brookfields, an international relocation company, where her excellent interpersonal skills will be put to good use. Stepping into her shoes in Marketing is fellow Andalucian, Carmelo Gonzalez, who has been working as part of our administration team for the last year. Carmelo has already had the opportunity to get some amazing on the job training shadowing Mariló on her final 3 week marketing trip to Brazil.

“It was hard work but great fun and I felt I learnt a lot from Mariló . I’m really looking forward to my new role.”

Funny and charming, Carmelo is sure to flourish in our Marketing Team.

Marketing colleague Andras Zareczky takes his hat off to his new team member, Carmelo

All LSI UK schools accept students from ages 16 years and upwards and in addition LSI London Hampstead, LSI London Hampstead Residential (King’s College), LSI Oxford and LSI Cambridge accept students from 13 years and upwards on our summer English for Juniors course. Presently any group leaders that come with a group are now required by law to demonstrate their suitability to work with children by providing a Police ‘Certificate of Good Conduct’ or ‘ Certificate of Criminal Record’ from their country of residence.

The UK schools have been informed by the British Council Accreditation Body that in cases where leaders arrive at the schools without the appropriate checks completed, the group leaders will only be able to have limited access and responsibility for their students and any additional supervision will be undertaken by the school staff and thus may result in additional costs for the group. LSI therefore stresses to all the groups we work with the importance of obtaining the necessary documentation before arrival.

LSI have received notification from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the international body that administers the TOEFL and TOEIC exams, that TOEIC tests will be suspended in the UK until at least March 7. The TOEIC test scores are commonly used by applicants to demonstrate English language proficiency to the UK Visa an Immigration Office. ETS has been asked to suspend any further testing as a result of an on going investigation by the UKBA about the potential abuse of this testing system by some test takers.

Any students/test takers who have booked a TOEIC test at one of our UK schools will therefore have the test cancelled and the exam fee will be refunded. LSI will keep our students informed as to when the TOEIC will be resumed and students will be able to reschedule the exam. LSI apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. All other English language test (TOEFL, IELTS and the Cambridge Language Assessment examinations) remain unaffected by the UKBA decision.

LSI London Central’s student, Stacy Perea from Mexico, enjoyed a number of events at the Olympic Games, including the football final and the Closing Ceremony. Here she gives her account of the experience.

“For me the Olympic Games of 2012 were one of the most wonderful experience’s I’ve had in London, that’s why I’m so happy and glad to have been here during this time. To live in London is a big opportunity to enjoy events which are the best in the World and are made with very high quality as well.”
“During this period I was able to appreciate beautiful spectacles and watch on all different kinds of sports. I also learned about British sports such as fencing, netball, tennis and polo and this was so interesting and exciting for me. At the same time, I could support athletes who represented my country and this was amazing. In my opinion the Olympic Games was a fantastic event, which brings together people from all over the world and I met people with so many different cultures. It was a real privilege to get to know the Olympic Park, Wembley Stadium and the Excel Centre where I lived euphoria, failure and happiness at the same time.”

LSI London Central is a language school located in the very centre of the British Capital, minutes from everything London has to offer. We offer General English, Examination Preparation, Business and Executive Mini Group and one-to-one courses alongside a wide range of accommodation options. The Paralympic Games take place in London from August 29th – September 9th and a number of tickets are still available. For more information, contact us on lon@lsi.edu .

Swedish student Johanna Hallin spent two months studying English at LSI London Central and wished to have her thoughts about her stay published here on the LSI Blog. The 22 year old student had travelled to the UK in March with the intention of improving her English for her job.

“”Going to London and to LSI was absolutely the best choice I’ve ever made. Not only did I learn a lot of English, met a lot of people and saw the city but I learned about other countries because of the multicultural environment in the city and school.

I got to meet a lot of wonderful people I’m sure I would never have met in Sweden and because I travelled by myself I got to know myself so much better. LSI as a school is really great, the staff is great and they really do everything to meet all your expectations, everything from the fun Social Programme to helping you if you have any troubles.

The School has the best location in the middle of the city off Tottenham Court Road so after school you can walk to Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus. The premises are really clean and bright and soon they’ll have a new study room with computers and books etc. WiFi is free in the whole building and you can borrow a computer as well.

The atmosphere in the school is really great and everybody, including the students, is really welcoming and nice.
I made a lot of friends in the two months I was there and it wasn’t hard at all to get to know them. A lot of people are afraid in the beginning because they leave their safe zone in their countries but to be honest the first week is the worst, it’s very confusing. But as I said the staff is always there to support you and encourage you . As a personal input, the first week I cried because I was scared the second I cried because I knew I had to leave sooner or later.

I promise you that coming to LSI is something you’ll never forget or regret. So if you want to try to live abroad, studying at LSI is the best choice.”

In January Célia Regina Viganó studied at LSI London Central for 3 weeks. As an English teacher in Pato Branco, Brazil, her main purpose was to improve her English , her pronunciation and to learn about the culture from first hand. Staying with a host family gave her plenty of opportunity to experience British culture and food plus indulge her love of animals thanks to the friendly miniature schnauzer Jemmy, the host family pet dog. Célia loved the atmosphere at the school and was able to absorb new teaching techniques used by the LSI teachers which she intends to use in her own teaching back in Brazil. She especially enjoyed the opportunity to make friends with fellow students from all around the world.

When Celia arrived home after her studies she was asked to write down the impressions she had of her trip. If you know Portuguese , you can read a very full account of her trip in an article written for her local newspaper Diário do Sudoeste.

Tags: LSI London Central Posted in LSI News | Comments Off on What it is really like studying in the UK – Read a published article from LSI London Central student

The UK Border Agency have recently announced the following changes for students wishing to study in the UK using the Tier 4 General Student Visas. These changes came into affect on April 21st 2011.

Only Grade A and Highly Trusted Sponsors (such as LSI ) will be allowed to issue CAS’s (confirmation of acceptance for studies) to students

School tests and skype interviews will no longer be accepted as proof of level. Students must have a valid exam certificate from the proscribed list, or have taken a Secure English Language Test (SELT) at a recognised exam centre. SELTs will also be made available at some consulates and embassies. The UKBA site have more information about the SELTS. Level requirement for Tier 4 visas will stay at Intermediate B1, ready to study at B2

Students on Tier 4 visas will no longer be allowed to work in the UK while studying at language schools.

All language schools will have a limited number of CAS’s available for students until April 2012. Therefore, LSI will issue only one CAS to each student.

A new Extended Student Visitor Visa has been introduced for Highly Trusted Sponsors. Language school students will now be able to apply for a Student Visitor Visa for up to 44 weeks at LSI.

Recently LSI London Central was approached by the Chilean TV channel ’24 Horas Noticias’ regarding filming a piece to do with studying English in England. LSI allowed the film crew into several of our classrooms and then to interview our students to get their thoughts about what it’s really like to study at LSI, to stay with a host family and what London has to offer.

School director Gavin Adams said, “It’s not the first time we have been approached like this. It’s great fun for the students and the teachers as most love the idea of being on TV. It’s not bad for LSI either, as we get to show to a new audience just what we have to offer any potential students out there.”

LSI UK has been busy investing in the latest classroom technology, installing interactive whiteboards in the classrooms. These new additions to the classrooms have been warmly welcomed by both teachers and student alike.

Noah using the whiteboard

Noah Fisher, a teacher at LSI London Hampstead, is a very keen proponent of the electronic whiteboard and has even provided training sessions in its use for other members of staff. “Interactive whiteboards are just great! Thanks to the amazing range of media that can be accessed from the Internet , it allows us teachers to be able to provide a much richer learning experience using the whiteboards. Apart from just being more visually appealing than the usual paper based resources, I find that the students become more engaged when sharing, discussing, even interacting with texts using the Interactive Whiteboard. It really seems to pull them into the tasks. ”

Ana Cristine, an LSI Hampstead student from Brazil, is in total agreement with Noah. “When we work with texts on the normal whiteboard I never finish writing down it all down before we move to the next topic but with the interactive board you can easily go back to previous exercises. Also the teacher is able to use lots of colours to highlight texts which makes it more interesting to look at as well as making each mark more distinct.”

LSI now has interactive whiteboards in all its UK schools at London Central, London Hampstead, Brighton and Cambridge. Learning a language has never been so much fun!

Based at the Manhattan Campus of the Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) , LSI New York has over many years established a mutually beneficial relationship with MCNY. Indeed, LSI New York offers one of the designated ESL programs permitting international students to follow on their LSI language courses by studying a huge array of degree courses at MCNY.

Due to this tradition of close cooperation between (MCNY) and LSI New York, LSI was only too happy to help out when approached by a group of MBA students asking to use LSI as a case study for their MBA program. These 25 students set out to focus on three main strands of the LSI business: Finance, Media Management and General adminstration. Initially meeting were held with the Director and staff at LSI New York but then spread out to include seminars and discussions with many of the top LSI management, LSI marketing , and culminated in a two-week trip to Europe visiting our schools in London and Zurich. The intention for this first phase of the project is to produce some recommendations for LSI as to how we can further improve our business. We look forward to hearing what they have to say!